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Saturday, 26 November 2016

DAPL protest cam "will be closed by Dec 5"

The
US Army Corps of Engineers announced it will close the portion of
federal land on which water protectors are camping in North Dakota by
December 5, to protect the public amid violent confrontations between
protesters and law enforcement.

The
Army Corps of Engineers said it is “closing
the portion of the Corps-managed federal property north of the
Cannonball River to all public use and access effective December 5,
2016,” according
to a statement tweeted by the Young Turks' Jordan Chariton.

“This
decision is necessary to protect the general public from the violent
confrontation between protestors and law enforcement officials that
have occurred in this area, and to prevent death, illness, or serious
injury to inhabitants of encampments due to the harsh North Dakota
winter conditions.”

The
notice said the Corps of Engineers had established “a
free speech zone on land south of the Cannoball River for anyone
wished to peaceably protest the Dakota Access pipeline project.”

The
notice said anyone found on the Corps’ land north of the Cannonball
River after December 5 “will
be considered trespassing and may be subject to prosecution under
federal, state, and local laws.” It
also said anyone staying on the lands would do so “at
their own risk, and assume any and all corresponding liabilities for
their unlawful presence and occupations of such lands.”

Standing
Rock Sioux Tribe responded to the notice expressing how disappointed
they were.

The
notice comes a week after 26 people were injured and taken to
hospital during classes at the pipeline site last Sunday and more
than 200 were reportedly treated for hypothermia after Morton County
Sheriff’s Department deployed water cannon in below-freezing
temperatures.

Since
the Spring, protesters have been standing in opposition the $3.7
billion Dakota Access Pipeline by setting up camps and blocking roads
in North Dakota to block the completion of the pipeline.

Among
the injured was Sophia Wilansky, who nearly
lost her arm when
a law enforcement officer threw a grenade at her that exploded.

The
North Dakota Highway Patrol said law enforcement officers were not
responsible for Wilansky’s injury.

“We
are aware of the information about the woman on social media who has
claimed she sustained injuries to her arm due to law enforcement
tactics. The injuries sustained are inconsistent with any resources
utilized by law enforcement and are not a direct result of any tools
or weapons used by law enforcement,” according
to North Dakota Highway Patrol Lieutenant Tom Iverson. “This
incident remains under investigation by the North Dakota BCI and ATF.
Additional details will be released as the investigation progresses.”

Another
woman, Vanessa Dundon, an Apache woman, was injured during the
confrontation on November 20 at the Backwater Bridge when she was
shot in the eye with a tear gas canister by the Sheriff’s
Department. She suffered a detached retina and needs surgery to
ensure her vision according to a GoFundMe
appeal set
up for her medical fund.

The
Army Corps of Engineers decision to declare some land off limits to
the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is the latest move in centuries of
treaty violations, according to the Standing Rock Sioux.

For
over 150 years the federal government has taken land from Lakota and
Dakota people according to tribal leaders, beginning with the seizure
of land in the Black Hills of South Dakota after the discovery of
gold in the 1870s “to the
construction of dams in the Missouri River that flooded villages,
timber land and farmland in the Dakotas in the 1950s.”

“This
government honors international treaties like they are the Holy
Grail, but within our own homeland they find a way to
break,” Standing
Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault told the Denver Post. Under the
treaties and American law, Archambault is the head of a domestic
sovereign nation